Originally posted by RealtorGal I notice that no one seemed to mind that Angela's music was supposed to be Swan Lake last year. All I read across this board was "Oooh, can't wait to see that!" Why is it different for Sasha? Mr. RG and I can't wait to see Sasha skate to this music. :\

The differnece is that Sasha has a history of using overused music. Angela does not.

>Jaana - If it's Swan Lake, it is the same old fairy tale story. The choreography will be the same for all who use the music (except Rudy). >

Urmanov also has skated to "Swan Lake", and it definetely looks different than that by Galindo. Each skater brings here their own personality, and in that way they perform a very different programme.

>What makes it all look the same is the skaters' getting up on their toerakes and pretending they're en point.>

I don´t agree here, because skaters anyway use same moves in their programmes, e.g. the jumps, the spins, the spirals and even about the same kind of hand gestures, and those all do not make every skating programme look the same, in my opinion.

I think that Angela certainly uses "overused" music, just as much as the next skater. I think that the difference is that, other than a sort of loyal fan base, Angela is not a hyped up famous skater.

Sasha astounds me with the amount of hype she gets, both on and off the web. All of the big guns (Alexei, Plushy, MK, Irina,etc...) recieve all of the biggest criticism as well as praise, it comes with the territory. I'm sure that we could all drag up lesser discussed skaters like Andrea Gardner and start saying thier music is overused, etc...but face it, none of these skaters will be as famous, as discussed, or as looked after as someone like Sasha.

Berthes Ghost - How true! I think Sasha has finally arrived with all the comments going on about her. It's part of the top tier territory.

But I'm a stickler with opera and ballet music. I don't appreciate imitating these background stories in ice skating - not after seeing the originals done on the stage. However, the music from opera and ballet is fine - just don't become a bird in Swan Lake.

Look at Zhen and Zhao's Turandot. Nothing to do with the opera, but oh, how marvelous they utilized the music.

a bit of this a bit of that

When a skater uses a bit of this and a bit of that, they stretch themselves, they develop their skating and they keep the interest of the audience. One time it might be contemporary music with a rocking feel, another time opera. Get my point?

For Sasha, it seems as if she listens to the music of the competitor just in front of her and decides to try it. Then she does the entire program methodically. We never get to see her soul. Surely she has one...

Skaters who use music that's been used before has never bothered me, but maybe that's because I haven't been following skating as long as some on this board. I have faith that Sasha will come through with an interestingly choreographed program - if this is supposed to finally be "her" season, wouldn't they work super hard on an original program? Does anyone know if Tarasova has choreographed other programs to overused music that have come out looking like copycats?